America has Never Been Less Safe

   

America has Never Been Less Safe

And Those Provoking Danger are Seeking Advance Pardons and Release from International Prosecutions

Donald Trump has mentioned that he may have to issue pardons before his term expires to cabinet members, senior government officials and even his foot soldiers, be they military or federal “police” agents. An admission guilt? Pardons for what? We can expect violent retaliation, now MAGA normalized, as gerrymanders deprive pockets of voters who are losing representatives in Congress – be they Democrats in Texas or Republicans in California. Guns are ubiquitous with fewer restrictions than ever. Even states with as many gun restrictions as the law will allow have no way of stopping guns bought legally elsewhere and brought into their state.

We’ve pulled FBI, DEA and ATF agents off serious and highly complex criminal investigations either to redact Epstein papers (of Trump’s name?) or to join ICE agents in immigration sweeps (above), most of which are detainees who have no criminal records. Officially, the only recognized serious domestic threat announced by the FBI during recent House Committee meetings as “Antifa,” although no evidence of even the existence of such an organization, its size and membership was produced. Meanwhile, as much of our foreign policy fails, in addition to a breakdown of the ill-conceived Gaza truce, Trump seems to be supporting Vladimir Putin’s demands, unchanged in the years of the Ukrainian war, for Kyiv to cede territory to Russia (including the most valuable sections of Ukraine where industrial infrastructure is centered) to Europe’s shock and dismay.

Europe sees Russia as an existential threat, as Moscow’s threats against Europe escalate, Russian drones/jets make cross-border “mistakes”… as official statements from the Trump administration suggest that American support for NATO is fading fast. The voices of European leaders sounding a rising distrust of Trump, accused of becoming Putin’s champion now, have grown into a roar. After the latest suggestion from the President that even visitors from visa-free countries will be required to share social media activities, telephone numbers and email addresses of family members as a condition of entry, cancellations for the FIFA World Cup games in the US are rising fast; could the Olympics be far behind? Trump seems to enjoy alienating the world.

They see federal troops, masked and embracing warrantless arrests, in US cities committing brutalities against citizen-protestors, helpless innocent immigrants, nasty videos from Dept of Homeland Security starring Sec. Kristi Noem, unlivable detention facilities (like Alligator Alcatraz), deportation to foreign concentration camps (like the massive Cecot Prison in El Salvador where US deportees were initially sent)… all as the President tears apart the White House to build a king’s garish grand ballroom that dwarfs the rest of that residence… and non-stop gun violence across the land, tens of millions of assault weapons killing innocents, including many American children by the thousands.

The world watches as the United States, flexing its military might, provokes a war against Latin American nations, threatening “cartel” territories in Colombia, Venezuela and even Mexico… without congressional or judicial approval. We could find ourselves in a shooting war by the unsanctioned actions of one man. War crimes? Murder? Whatever else and said and done, we are now perceived as a lawless and brutal international bully, untrustworthy from top to bottom.

But while miniscule drips and drabs of illicit drugs are subject to US missile attacks in international waters, in boats which may not even be heading the US shores, Trump pardons a convicted felon, responsible for hundreds of tons of cocaine and other drugs sold in the US, who ran his drug empire as President of Honduras… and shortly after ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández was released, extradition orders from Honduras were served on this felon. He’s still a wanted criminal.

But are we the ones suborning criminality? As the Team Coffman Chronicle (December 14th) tells us: “The Trump administration is reportedly pressing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to guarantee that Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials won’t be prosecuted for alleged war crimes, a move that could escalate tensions with international legal institutions. According to Reuters, Washington has threatened new sanctions on the ICC if it does not agree to amend its founding treaty to shield current and former American leaders from future prosecution.

“Administration officials are said to be worried that after Trump’s term ends in 2029, the ICC might pursue investigations against the president, vice president and senior defense figures, creating a high-stakes conflict between the U.S. and the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal. The same anonymous U.S. source told Reuters that Washington has communicated similar demands to ICC member countries and publicly signaled its position to the court.

“In addition to the immunity concerns, the U.S. wants the ICC to drop ongoing probes into Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict and to formally end a long-running investigation into U.S. military actions in Afghanistan. Amending the Rome Statute would require approval from two-thirds of ICC member states, a major diplomatic and legal hurdle that the court’s critics say is unlikely to succeed…

“Legal experts and international rights advocates warn that using sanctions to influence a court’s prosecutorial independence could undermine the rule of law and damage global efforts to hold leaders accountable. What happens next hinges on whether the ICC formally responds to the U.S. threats and on diplomatic pressure from other member states.”

As Donald Trump orders that states cannot have the power to set guardrails against the unbridled growth of artificial intelligence, a technology with profoundly dangerous risks run by some of the greediest tech bros imaginable, money talks… common sense walks. Add to that the Trump billionaire tax cut and the even bigger social benefits cuts among the neediest working Americans. Medical costs are set to explode to eliminate millions of Americans from any healthcare… and explode the cost of healthcare for the rest of us as well. Indeed, as measles, flu and a virulent strain of COVID are on the rise, a clown car of HHS/CDC medical quacks, rejected by virtually all mainstream doctors and healthcare professionals, is cutting back support for vaccines at virtually every level, but particularly among school children. Not only are those should be getting those vaccines (but do not) truly unsafe, but the risk of epidemic, and even pandemic, disaster rises for everybody else. And to think, Donald Trump’s recent poll numbers have inched up slightly.

I’m Peter Dekom, and notwithstanding millions of fact averse conspiracy theorists still very much behind Trump, step by toxic step, millions of Americans are less safe than any of us have been since the Civil War… because of Trump’s unilateral dictates and missteps.